A nation that aspires to be an economic superpower found itself powerless Tuesday as it reeled under what is being termed as the “world’s biggest blackout.” Half of India’s 1.2 billion population- or 600 million people- were plunged into darkness with no access to electricity when three of the nation’s power grids in the north, east and north east covering 20 Indian states, collapsed.

The crisis followed a crippling power outage on Monday in the northern region, that hit Delhi, the nation’s seat of political power. The two-day blackout impacted essential services as it stopped trains, metro services and traffic lights, among much else, leaving thousands of commuters stranded and businesses in disarray. It trapped miners in West Bengal state in eastern India, prompting the chief minister to declare a holiday due to the disruption.

India’s federal power minister Sushil Kumar Shinde blamed the blackout on certain states that supposedly had overdrawn power beyond their quotas. The government run Power Grid Corporation claimed that by evening, electricity had been “substantially restored” in Delhi and was coming back elsewhere. Renuka Choudhary, spokesperson of the Congress Party who appeared on national television with a glowing lamp as a backdrop, blamed India’s perennial power woes –over one third of all Indians have no electricity-to the nation’s huge population.

The power crisis is the latest of a series of missteps by the Congress Party-led United Progressive Alliance which have reinforced its image as a lame duck government. Ironically, on the day of the country’s biggest blackout in recent memory, Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh announced a woefully mistimed cabinet reshuffle; power minister Shinde was shifted to the crucial home ministry in what many saw as a wholly undeserved promotion.

I am the India Editor of Forbes Asia and Mumbai bureau manager of Forbes. From Mumbai, I track the wealth of India's richest and also oversee the rich lists for Singapore and Thailand. Earlier, I was managing editor of Business India, among India's leading business magazine...